ABC News' The Note: First Source for Political News

ByABC News
July 19, 2004, 8:35 AM

W A S H I N G T O N, July 16, 2004&#151;<br> -- NOTED NOW

TODAY SCHEDULE (all times ET)

FUTURES CALENDAR

Morning Show Wrap

Evening Newscasts Wrap

NEWS SUMMARY:

The Note's list of people who have incredible power in this election year to influence the entire free media cycle, listed in order of influence.

(Let's hope and pray they take the responsibility seriously and use it for good and not evil.)

1. Bill Keller and Jill Abramson of the New York Times

If you doubted for a minute before yesterday the capacity of the New York Times to dominate the media day with a front-page placement, wipe that doubt from your mind.

2. Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report

How incredible would an item floated by the Montgomery Blair alum have to be for newsroom staffs and executive producers not to demand the story be matched?

3. Everyone else is tied for third.

Today President Bush speaks at the National Training Conference on Human Trafficking at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel and Marina, Tampa, Fla. and speaks at the Raleigh County Armory Civic Center, Beckley, W.Va. Daughter Barbara travels with him to Florida, and we'll see if she is ready to speak to the crowd.

The President's weekend plans are to skip Camp David and hang around the D.C. area for a bit of his new favorite macho exercise of cycling.

Vice President Cheney and Sen. McCain attend a rally at the Lansing Center in Lansing, Mich., and attend a rally at Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center in Waterloo, Iowa. Cheney delivers remarks at a BC'04 rally in Minneapolis, Minn., on Saturday. On Monday, Cheney delivers remarks at a BC'04 event in Columbia, Mo.

Sen. Kerry addresses the 2004 America Federation of Teachers Convention at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. and attends a Kerry/Edwards Victory 2004 Reception at the Hilton Crystal City in Arlington, Va.

Kerry plans to spend the weekend secluded at the Heinz family's three-story, $9.1 million waterfront home in Nantucket, to finish writing his convention speech and to wrap convention plans before a multi-state pre-convention tour. Senator: we suggest you get some ice cream from the Juice Bar (and take the pool with you).

Sen. Edwards attends a Kerry/Edwards Victory 2004 Reception at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, Calif., and speaks at the Southwest Voters Registration, Education Project Latino Vote 2004 Dinner at the Universal City Hilton and Towers, Los Angeles, Calif. Edwards raises money in Newport Beach, Calif on Saturday and in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., on Sunday. On Monday, Edwards will be in Raleigh, N.C. and ends his day in Washington, D.C.

Teresa Heinz Kerry attends an event with Washington State Democrats the and Governor's Association at the Trade and Convention Center, Seattle, Wash.

The National Governors Association holds its annual meeting in Seattle starting Saturday and running through July 20. Lots of battleground state governors all gathered in one place.

ABC News Vote 2004: Bush-Cheney v. Kerry-Edwards:

The Los Angeles Times' Chris Kraul reports from Mexico City, where Diana Kerry (yes relation sister) was wooing expatriate voters. She has been to Canada, the UK, and Germany already to help voters abroad learn how to vote for her brother. In an example of how both the campaigns are taking the every-vote-counts factor seriously, the Republicans have also sent former veep Dan Quayle out to places such as Berlin to do the same thing. LINK

But how significant are the numbers? Check out this paragraph: "Democrats Abroad, the party's international voter registration wing, is placing a particular emphasis on Mexico, believed to be home to the most U.S. expatriate retirees, workers and students, followed by Canada and the United Kingdom. Estimates of Americans living here vary wildly: the U.S. Embassy places the number at 385,000 and Democrats say it is 1 million."

The Los Angeles Times, in the second get-out-the-vote story of the day, looks at campaign volunteers in Missouri to show the effort by both campaigns to return to the old days of knocking doors and cold-calling voters. LINK

ABC News Vote 2004: Kerry-Edwards '04: :

Little news but lots of color in Jim VandeHei's take-out on Sen. Kerry's religious faith. The man is a thoroughgoing Roman Catholic, though reticent in the New England tradition, to talk about his faith or even allow that it plays a prominent role in his life. LINK

"Kerry has rebuffed pressure from Democrats inside and outside his campaign to talk more openly about religion, aides say, other than making the word 'faith' part of the values message he is offering to voters on the campaign trail. He has turned down numerous interview requests on the topic, including several for this article. Aides said Kerry's resistance to talking about faith and personal beliefs is a relatively common trait among Catholic and Protestant politicians reared in the reserved New England tradition."

"On the road, Kerry carries a rosary, a prayer book and a medal with the image of St. Christopher, patron saint of travelers, which he wore during the Vietnam War, according to a longtime associate who demanded anonymity to discuss an issue the candidate did not want to discuss. Kerry prays, sometimes with friends, including in 1999 when he helped former Vietnam crewmate Del Sandusky through hard times, the associate said."

The Wall Street Journal's John Harwood and Jake Schlesinger sat down with Senator Kerry to talk about how he'd handle the situation in Iraq. Kerry laid out a three-part test for pulling troops out of Iraq, but declined to talk about specific benchmarks. Kerry said he would look at the country's stability, figure out the lay of the land to keep stability, and look at the ability of Iraqi security forces to ensure that stability. The Senator also said he wouldn't put it past the Bush Administration to withdraw troops before the November election. LINK

Some excerpts from the interview: LINK

Warming the hearts of Kerry-Edwards staffers everywhere, this little paragraph in Michael Finnegan's Los Angeles Times write-up of Sen. Kerry's visit to the NAACP folks yesterday, "The enthusiasm in the convention hall suggested at least some measure of success in Kerry's dual effort to bolster his support among blacks and to use Bush's absence to damage his already dismal standing among African Americans." LINK

See also: LINK and LINK and ">LINK and LINK

The New York Times' Jodi Wilgoren fact checks the Kerry campaign's new television ad designed to appeal to African-American voters only semi-well-timed, because the ad is being re-cut and refined thanks to the helpful advice of the Congressional Black Caucus. LINK

Sen. Kerry is heading to Nantucket this weekend in hopes that the smell of the saltwater ocean will inspire him in writing his speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination, reports the New York Times' David Halbfinger. LINK

Notes ABC News' Ed O'Keefe: "Kerry, who prefers to write longhand, insisted he was toiling away on his nomination acceptance speech and finalizing plans including late addition speakers to the impending convention."

"The Senator acknowledged that top aides such as Terry Edmunds, Miles Lackey, and David Wade would eventually be allowed to take their blue pen-filled hands to his work but Kerry explained, 'It's pretty personal. I'm not sharing much of it right now.'"

"And, the Democratic nominee-to-be's process does not lend itself to modern day editing. Sans Blackberry, laptop or desktop, Kerry described, 'I cut and paste, the old scissors and paste, write it out, have somebody type it up, read it, sleep on it, see how sh-tty it is in the morning.'"

"Moments later, the cautious politician corrected, 'Sorry, wrong word, bad it is.'"

From ABC News' Gloria Riviera with Sen. Edwards: "Edwards seems to be closing in on making his own separate peace with his new role. By the end of day two the speech flowed a touch more easily, a tad more naturally and entirely structured along familiar lines right down to word for word phrases he's been preaching for the last year such as, 'The American people will reject the politics of hate' Could it be the Senator is benefiting from the works of wordsmithtress Wendy Button, newly minted Head Speechwriter for her old boss? And so, while the phrase, "Introducing the next VICE President" certainly has a different ring than it may have sans the vice, it seems just fah-hine to JRE."

Yin: The AP reports "Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said Wednesday that conflicts of interest plague Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and make it difficult for him to take clear positions on health care, education and other issues." LINK

Yang: Raphael Lewis of the Boston Globe reports, "The Massachusetts Democratic Party will file an ethics complaint today against Gov. Mitt Romney, accusing the Republican of illegally spending taxpayer dollars on a trip to raise money for his party and to bash Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry." LINK

The Boston Globe's Brian C. Mooney Notes an apparent boost to Kerry since becoming Kerry-Edwards in the South, citing Zogby and Mason-Dixon polling. LINK

The Boston papers are reporting that U.S. Ambassador to Canada and former Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci is planning on resigning his post to potentially run for Sen. Kerry's seat should the Democrat win the presidential election. LINK